Stories in the Afterlife
by Mutant of Time
Summary: Karkat wakes up, a bit disturbed and annoyed when no one even notices him. A bit of a listen in on a Rose and Terezi conversation, and Karkat soon figures out his problem. Short summary is short but I don't want to give anything away! Rated T for language. Slight Karezi.


**I got this idea last night when I was thinking about Karkat, and I thought, "What would happen if everyone was ignoring Karkat?" and then this happened. Almost nothing went according to plan. This story had a mind of its own.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Homestuck or the characters, they belong to Andrew Hussie.**

* * *

I woke up pretty early in the morning, (yes, morning. The human douchebags had gotten us used to their schedule now.) from a dream of sorts, and I felt strangely empty. I walked out into the common room that Rose and Kanaya had designated the center of the meteor as. As usual, no one paid any mind to me. Wait, as usual? Normally I would at least get a glance. Whatever.

I walked into the kitchen to find something to eat, because I felt like I had this bottomless pit in my stomach. I was hungry. I rummaged around in the refrigerator, looking for something to eat, when Dave walked in. I cringed, knowing an inevitable pestering was sure to come. I quirked an eyebrow when Dave walked right past me without a word. I stepped out of the way when he headed for the refrigerator, taking out some white liquid shit and pouring it onto his bowl of 'cereal'. Whatever that was, I didn't touch human food.

Dave put the carton of white liquid shit back into the fridge and sat down at the table, before realizing he didn't have a spoon. He got up to get one, brushing past me, and once he retrieved it, he sat back down.

I hated to provoke him, but this silence was unnerving.

"Hey asshole," I greeted him aloud. He didn't so much as flinch or even glance up from his cereal. I stalked over to him so I was right in his ear, and shouted my greeting again.

"I SAID HEY ASSHOLE."

No response. Damn this kid was good at keeping a poker face.

"Whatever," I said, absconding the room, having lost my appetite. As I walked back through the common room, I gave a small wave to Kanaya, but she didn't look up from the book she was reading, or even grunt in reply. I stepped forward cautiously and gained no reaction as I waved a hand in front of her face.

What the hell did I do this time to deserve to be ignored by everyone? My memory of yesterday was a little hazy, but I don't remember doing anything too terribly offensive or annoying. Why was everyone ignoring me?

Ticked off, I stomped my way back to my respiteblock, on the way passing Rose's. I heard voices inside.

"What are we going to do?" I heard Terezi's voice ask. "Gamzee is going to go insane again once he finds out!"

Once he finds out? Finds out about what?

"I don't know. But I don't think we can do much. We already gave him a respectful burial of sorts, even if it is against the culture of your kind. He'll just need to rest in peace. I'm sure we'll find a way to deal with Gamzee," Rose's soothing voice told Terezi. I heard a sniffle come from inside the room, and I decided to peek inside.

"What if we don't see him ever again? Not even in a dream bubble...I don't think I could handle that, Rose," Terezi said, her voice softer this time, a half sob interrupting her sentence.

"There, there. Just because he was...different...doesn't mean that he will be too much different in death. I'm sure we'll see him," Rose said to Terezi, rubbing a soothing hand up and down her back. Terezi wiped a few teal tears off her cheeks and held back another sob.

"I sure hope so. He's...he was the last thing I had left. I mean, Dave is important to me too, but it's...it's different with Karkat. It was different with Karkat," she said, head hanging down.

Karkat? They're talking about me. I stepped in the room, making my presence clear. I still didn't understand what they were talking about...rest in peace or some shit...but I thought that they needed to know that I knew they were talking about me.

My entrance into the room gained no attention whatsoever. I cleared my throat, which made Rose's head snap up. But not in my direction.

"Terezi...," she called softly. Terezi slowly lifted her head to look at Rose.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"I think...if I'm not mistaken, I think he's with us now. But...because he was a mutant, we can't see, hear, nor feel him. I don't think sliding your tongue through the air is going to help either, and I doubt that his presence can be smelled," she said. Terezi perked up.

"He's here?!" she asked excitedly.

"Yes, I'm positive that he is," Rose replied. Terezi gave the air a few tentative sniffs, but she didn't smell anything.

Wait...they can't see me? Why can't they see me? Rest in peace? Was? Wait...did I...? No...that can't be...

Did I die?

My head turned left, searching for the mirror in the side of the room that I knew must be there. But when I looked into it, nothing looked back.

Startled, I jumped back, bumping into Terezi, who had stood up and began searching the room. The only thing is, I didn't bump her. I fell right through her.

Shit. I was dead. I was dead, and they couldn't see me. I held no physical form. God dammit, this is what I get for being a mutant.

Terezi shivered when I fell through her, and suddenly she was on the ground next to me, her arms wrapped aroun-...through me?

"I found him!" Terezi told Rose excitedly, burying her face into my ghost of a presence. I ran my fingers through her hair, cooing soft words to her, even though I knew she couldn't hear me. I sat up some so that her head was in my lap, and I actually physically moved her. It must have looked pretty freaky to Rose, and felt freakier to Terezi.

A few thoughts ran through my head.

Why was I dead? Would everyone be okay with out me? Where's Gamzee?

I was finally understanding everything that they said. But the one question I wanted answered most remained unanswered.

How did I die?

A red, seemingly nonexistent tear fell down my cheek, but for some reason, it was real. It splashed against Terezi's cheek, and she jumped at the contact of it.

"Karkat?" she called out. She brushed her hand against the red drop on her cheek, and then licked it off her fingers.

"He's crying," she told Rose. "A real tear of his just fell on my cheek. He's really here..."

More tears came and I could do nothing to stop them. This wasn't supposed to happen. I wasn't supposed to die. We were all supposed to make it to the new universe together. Everyone, even everyone that already died. None of us should have died, we were supposed to make it _together,_ god dammit!

I was sobbing, making horrible choking sounds, and no one could hear. No one could see me. No one could really feel me. I couldn't really be touched. I felt empty, a void of my own.

I wiped my own tears away, and cradled Terezi deeper into my arms. She was the one comforting me now.

"Shhhh...Karkat...it's okay. Everything's okay. Don't cry..."

I pressed my lips to hers in a ghost kiss, this kiss representing all of the care and flushed feelings I had for her. She felt this kiss on her lips, and suddenly, I was ripped away from the meteor.

I was floating in the air, a spectator on the scene below me.

"What the fuck?! I thought he wasn't supposed to catch up to the meteor!" I heard Dave's voice call out. Everyone was on the roof of the meteor, standing in front of something. Well, everyone was there except for Gamzee.

"I don't know!" Kanaya cried out, having lost her cool which was hard to get her to do. She was panicking. Terezi was on the ground, craddling something...no, someone in her lap.

"No...," she sobbed. "This wasn't supposed to happen!"

That's when I saw who she was holding. It was me. There was a sword through my chest. It was Noir's sword. I was dead.

I now figured out what happened. Something had drawn everyone up to the roof, Noir came, he killed me and absconded. That's what happened. Shit.

I must have been wandering through memories now, because I saw myself in my respiteblock, on my bed, which was covered in flowers that someone had alchemized. Whoever did this was good at covering my deep sword cut, because it simply looked like I was snoozing in a bed of flowers.

Everyone (except for Gamzee) was surrounding me. Some tears were shed, Terezi's more specifically, some seemed upset, but didn't show it. That was Kanaya and Rose. The mayor was standing with his hands folded and he was mumbling something. Dave looked disturbed, upset, and torn.

I guess he was torn between going back in time to save me or not. One by one, people left the room until Terezi and Rose were the only ones left. Rose flicked a switch at the head of the bed, and it started to sink deep inside the meteor. Once myself in my bed of flowers was centered in the meteor, a metal door slid shut over the hole.

"Everything will be okay, Terezi. He may rest in peace," Rose told Terezi, comforting her.

Terezi could only silently cry in return.

I was ripped from that memory now, and I was thrown into a random dream bubble. The meteor was long gone now.

Where I was was bright, put not painfully so. In the distance, I saw Terezi, as well as everyone who had died. Once they saw me, Terezi ran over and engulfed me in a hug.

"We've been awaiting your arrival! I missed you so much, Karkat!" she told me, squeezing me tightly.

I was soon informed that this Terezi was from a doomed timeline, and they had seen my death coming in the clouds. The other dead that were here were from my timeline, and they were soon filling me in on every detail of what happened, and what the after life was like.

After spending awhile with them, I found that I was calm. I no longer had burdens of the mission to carry, and I was able to relax, considerably less irritable than before. I even found myself smiling, thinking to myself that maybe this wasn't going to be so bad.

Maybe all along, I was supposed to die. At least I wanted to think so, because for once in my life (or death, I should say) I was happy.


End file.
